in the deep sky's Abyss

_7_

This one's oddly poetic. (7)

Trigger warning: suicide attempt, mention of self harm, quite realistic description of trench warfare, mention of genocide.

A/N: sorry for being late, i am currently sick. Enjoy.

___________,
The ship's mechanic had managed to fuel it. Alex had been released from the inframary. Everything semmed to be going good.

Apparently too good. There was now two super-dreadnoughts in orbit. They had been laying orbital bombardment on the forest planet.

The mountain the pirates had chosen as basecamp was luckily spared from the strikes.

__________,
It was late in the night.

The snapping of his leg; the burning cuts on his face; the breaking of his ribs. it was all back, it flowed over him like a waterfall, it felt like he would drown in the pain.

He woke suddenly. He was sweaty, and gasping. He started to scratch the inside of his arms, they were itchy. He wanted to scream, but was afraid of waking Max.

Alex started to climb down the ladder, but fell on his weak feet. He cried a little more. Worst of all he felt like he deserved the pain, even when he knew that he didn't.

As he climbed next to Max, and curled up, he felt like things were going to be all ok.

_____________,
When Max woke up, she couldn't see Alex. ' he's propably just practising. ' she thought. She opened the bathroom door, and took a shower. The mirror had been covered. When she looked in the cabinet for a towel, she laid her eyes on the bloodstained razor. ' never again. ' she promised to herself.

Then she got dressed in overalls, ready for work.

The day was largely spent on welding the panels covering the engines back togheter. They were unpainted chrome-ish looking. The ship had mostly suffered cosmetic damage. But the second engine was beyond repair.

__________.
The planet had wery much harmful fauna. There was always someone acting as an anti-air person, shooting the giant batlike creatures.

Max could feel the soldiers running down on the surface, and the ones on the super-dreadnoughts. She didn't know how, but she could feel them.

Down on the surface the armies of flame-troopers, and astro-marines were bravely fighting against the machines.

_______.
Down on the surface it was even more horrifying, than it would seem from orbit.

Callum was a low ranking officer in the army of the imperium. The rain was beating him through his camouflage uniform. As he looked into the endless lines of men and women marching to their deaths, he shuddered. He and his soldiers were tasked with building defensive positions.

The web-ish trench system on the hilltop was quite obviously put togheter in a hurry. Wooden boards, sheet metal and everything else rigid enough had been used for the thrench walls.

"no matter what, we will stand and fight, and prevail, battle brothers." Callum reassured his soldiers as the earth shook from the power of an orbital strike.

With the gods on their side and weapons in hand, they stood strong. 12 000, standing side by side, muddy faces and loaded weapons. They felt invincible.

They were not invincible, half a million cadualties in two days. Not a single kilometer of ground had been won. All of them now knew that they'd die in these trenches.

If only Callum's former commander had been there. Solomon had known what to do. Callum was hopeless, he hadn't even been issued armor.

They had claimed to be just, while killing women and children. The imperium was at it's strongest, but would soon shatter into a million pieces.
___________,
Alex and Max had had a heated argument. Both had said bad things, things they truly didn't mean. Now both were sobbing in their respective isolated spaces.

There was so much tension amongst the crew in general, that no one would be suprized if someone threw themselves off the cliff.

Alex had eaten a bottle of of painkillers, trying to end it. They had screamed at eachother about harming themselves, and even told the other that they'd be better off dead. Nothing too nice.

Max was sitting on the edge of the cliff. Ready to jump.

The sensation was wierd, like some angels  from hell had been calling her to do it.

But she was stronger than her demons were. She started hesitantly walk back to her suicidal boyfriend.

She questioned if it was a good idea. Then she knocked before entering swiftly.

"you didn't wait for me to let you in" (A)

"i just wanted to say that, when i said,  what i said i didn't mean it." (M) "i love you too much to really mean it"

"you love me? Quite the news." (A) "come here, help me up"

As she lifted Alex off of the ground, he whispered in her ear, "i love you too, i will always love you"

They stood there for, who knows how long, just embraceing each other.

__________,
Callum was exasperated. The presence of death was overwelming. He picked up a trench-rifle and whacked it on the wall of the command trench violently. The steel bent, and the wood broke on the rifle. Who even thought of sending weapons with wood to a fucking jungle?

He coughed violently. He had been exposed to the air when his helmet was cracked by a laser bolt.

"calm down, A-612." the superior commander said calmly.

"why even use the numbers?, we have lifes, some of us have someone waiting for us back home, we are people." (CA)

"we are soldiers, we carry this war on our shoulders. We cannot afford to be seen as individuals, we are frightening as a mass."

Callum thought about it. It wierdly seemed to make sense. He still didn't like the idea of having a number for a name.

'atleast i can't be blamed to be a coward' he thought. Commanding his troops from their side's was quite uncommon. It was one thing his former mentor had taught him, "a true leader faces the same as he makes his soldiers face." was sometging he had instilled in Callum's mind.

He prayd to the god of luck and the god of war, that he would survive. The sun burned his tanned skin, even trough his helmet and uniform. First the rain and now the sun beating down on them?, they were in deep shit, literally and figuratevily.

"what is it to be here, but pain and suffering.'' a sergeant remarked.

This launched Callum into his thoughts. He had gotten a philosophy degree on terra. his father was rich, but that didn't help with his Kriegsglück (war-luck).

Blaster bolts hit the sandbags at the top of the trench. Two soldiers fell to the ground, both lifeless. Callum stumbled back, and got his boot stuck in a grenade-kicking-hole. He cursed.

The brain matter and blood started to dry on his uniform. What a perfect day.
____________,
Solomon was worried, he was looking down on the valley of death down below. The trees were starting to shed a few of their many leaves.

What if they found him, or worse the boys did. The imperium had destroyed both of their homes, and he had just stood and watched.

He felt like he was a traitor to everyone he knew.

________,
A/N:
I was made to go.to school sick, not too fun.

Drink water, vote if you liked, and comment if you want to say something.